How to make Christmas special with teens?

[RealHousewivesOfTaunton]

When the DC were little I made sure we did Christmassy walks, Christmas film nights, crafts, saw Father Christmas, went to light trails etc. Now 14yo DS is almost impossible to remove from his room and 12yo DD just wants to watch YouTube and go shopping. A nice walk is their idea of torture.

I feel very un-Christmassy. What do you do with your teens in the run-up to Christmas?

Cinema trip (let them choose popcorn, sweets and a can of pop from somewhere cheap such as home bargains)

Watch a christmas film with either nice snacks, pizzas or order takeaway.

Trip to christmas markets and have hot chocolate.

Get gingerbread house kit and make that.

Christmas quiz with prizes (chocolate bars usually suffice) Or board game night with snacks.

Make homemade sweets as gifts and put into sandwich bag with christmas sticker and tied with a ribbon. Pretty simple to make peppermint creams or fudge. Or could make brownies or biscuits and decorate.

Mine are boys 16&13 also usually sleep in late, on phones etc. but we also have girl aged 7 and a dog so sometimes we drag the older ones out with us to walk dog in national trust places that usually have Christmassy trails - again bribed with coffee/hot chocolate and a cake from the tea shop.

We also took them up to London to look at Xmas lights and have nice lunch last weekend - costs much more now they're older.

Xmas markets the 13yo will come but not usually the 16yo.

Xmas films - we all watch home alone and home alone 2, elf - popcorn and Pringles provided! The older ones will watch Xmas with kranks and die hard with us when younger is in bed.

Xmas baking - the 13yo still enjoys baking cakes, brownies and gingerbread house with the younger - not sure 16yo will join in but he'll def eat what's made!!

I'd like to go ice skating with them but I am scared of falling so I've never been - the 16yo goes with friends tho! We did winter wonderland the other year too which they all enjoyed but it was £££!

I kmow op 😢.
I did manage to get a gasp out of my tween when she saw how I've decorated the room.

I'm planing on a take away Xmas eve and watching the gremlin film.

Later today I was hoping to get them out to natinal trust property.

We still watch all the same favourite Christmas movies in the week leading up and they are enjoying getting the toddler to watch them all too.

they also still enjoying decorating gingerbread houses while watching Christmas movies.
there is such an age spread we never stopped some things and carried on the same for everyone and they all still love it 😊
(actually some years when we thought they’d have outgrown some things and they were disappointed so we’d end up organising things last minute lol so now we just continue the same things they loved when little as they still want to and it’s lovely and fun lol ☺️)

Ds2 requested takeaway pizza so we're doing that with a film or two. Might even crack open one of the array of never played with board games too.

We watched movies, went into the city to the big cinema, had food and hot chocolate, lights switch on every year, but I have girls, and choristers so much of December was singing at carol services. Countryside walking not so much!

Oh other big treat was being allowed mulled cider - I bought the 2% Normandy cider so once juice was added too it was very weak from an alcohol perspective but as a teen special! (You can even use apple juice)

By the way it gets better once they reach adulthood in my experience if a lot more alcoholic. Mine love Christmas as does dsd who just slotted straight into my family's traditions (not a given when you meet them at 19)

Oh have a look and see if any local pubs have brass bands today, we went last week and there were all ages 0-102!

This is really stupid but I am cackling to myself. Giving each of my teens a nice decorative Christmas box with lid, and a wrapped carrot, and we are going to play Carrot in a Box.

I am currently in the throws of dealing with a very over excited 3yo and I can't bloody wait until everyone is a bit older and we're able to enjoy Christmas in a civilised manner. I think the magic is looked back on with rose tinted specs to be honest. So far this year the Christmas tree has been savaged, the advent calendar sneakily opened too early (no idea how, I thought I'd been watching it like a hawk!), epic tantrums, nursery germs so we've missed the lights show we booked onto, too fidgety to sit through panto. Dreading our annual Christmas eve meal out and building the ginger bread house kits...! DC1 who is 8 was a genuine angel as a toddler/preschooler (still is) so I suspect I am just shocked at what is likely fairly normal Christmas over excitement but bloody hell, I am traumatised and currently hiding in the bedroom while DH referees. I am sure I too will look back at this magical time when they are teenagers though

I am actually really enjoying the chilled nature of it all. DS2 and I had fun picking a tiny table top tree, I set a strict budget and have presents done and all adults agreed to even scrap secret Santa this year. We’ve pared back the menu to very easy stuff and are just going to go to GP and play board games (we’ve never stopped games).

Went for a swanky lunch with my mum, went to the cinema last week and have theatre on Boxing Day. Rest of the time they can do as they please.

We have two younger children too as well as three teens which makes the Christmas vibes a bit easier. But all our kids are obsessed with Christmas and we end up doing quite a lot!

We went to Winter Wonderland last week which everybody loved. The day before yesterday, we went to Regent Street to see the gorgeous Christmas lights. Today, we are doing a Christmas gingerbread house competition.

On Christmas Eve, we are baking snowmen cookies for Santa and they'll help with making hot chocolate and keeping the magic alive for our youngest who is still a firm Santa believer! Then we are spending the entire day bingeing Christmas movies until we all have an early bed time. They then get their Christmas pyjamas ready to sleep in before the big day!!

We love to make decorating our house for Christmas a big deal and event too to really set the vibes. Putting the lights up, making ornaments for the tree etc.

Watch Die Hard with an array of festive treats. Surely they will watch Home Alone?

Play some games, I've bought a traitors game and we have a few favourites like Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza which is silly and hilarious. We have got Beat that Game which is good, lots of silly challenges involving ping pong balls, straws and plastic pint glasses. Get a family escape room. Task everyone with the challenge of creating a quiz round for a family quiz. Tell them if the come for a walk they will get Hot Chocolate with all the trimmings. Go to a Panto. Get some gingerbread house kits and have a competition, kids vs adults.

My teens still love all this stuff.

Xmas Eve film and pizza delivered might tempt them. Make hot chocolate with squirty cream and chocolate sprinkles even my adult kids love that. Die Hard is a good Xmas film for teens. It's on Netflix.

@ElsaSnow you made me laugh so much with your comment about 16 year old coming down to eat gingerbread house. My 18 year old is exactly the same he thinks he's too big to make the house but just loves to eat it. Also I take teen skating with a friend. He skates and I watch through giant window drinking hot chocolate. We get a pizza takeaway on the way home.

When my sister and I were both teens (and me a very jaded one) I remember our adult DB and DSiL having us for Christmas. We had a gingerbread house making competition, ice skating, karaoke (depending on where you live you can go to a proper place), and we did a shopping trip to do a White Elephant gift exchange with each other. It's a bit late now to organise I suppose, but they also let us go with them to help out at a soup kitchen on Christmas Eve (we just helped in the back) which we really enjoyed as it was so busy and satisfying!

Reporting back. The light trail was good, even though they'd somehow run out of hot chocolate. DS decided he was too cool to go round with us so stayed one spectacle ahead at all times. This led to an unfortunate situation with a member of staff following him with a torch thinking he was one of the teens who'd broken in to cause trouble on another night. Marvellous. I had to explain that he wasn't a troublemaker, just grumpy. We watched The Grinch when we got home and ate chilli with "reindeer nose" tortilla chips, plus posh hot chocolate from my velvetiser.

I took DD on a cheese hunt in our local market town, with a stop for boba tea. She loved it and the town was very Christmassy. DS was also invited but preferred to stay at home.

Today we had family over for cheese and nibbles. When they all left we did our traditional Christmas Eve viewing of The Snowman and Father Christmas. DD then put out carrots and biscuits but came downstairs unexpectedly and caught me repurposing the glass of milk, so stormed off in a mood claiming that I'm squashing her beliefs

I've been trying and failing to do their stockings for over an hour. DD tied her stocking to her wrist. DS was lying in wait and threw open his bedroom door to catch "Santa" in the act. FFS. I was half intending to go to midnight mass but decided I was too tired and got changed into pyjamas. I might as well have gone at this rate! Blooming kids. It'd be coal for them if I had any.

I've resolved to book Center Parcs for Christmas next year.

We (me, DS15 and DS25) have watched a film, cooked a chilli, they went out together earlier, me and DS1 went for a run.
It's been relaxed and nice - family time and us doing our own thing.
The little kid years are magical but this is just as lovely in a different way.
Knowing I'll get a good sleep fills me with a festive glow!

Also reporting back - we managed to get the teens up at 7 to open presents together! Followed by pancakes for breakfast. After lunch we all played 2 new board games for a couple of hours. Teens went off to game/do their own thing for a bit and then as our 7yo got a remote control car we set up obstacle courses and timed ourselves doing laps with the car including penalties for every crash - everyone enjoyed it good fun!